Leveraging Leadership
Leadership is messy. Most advice isn't built for the reality of competing priorities, difficult stakeholders, limited time, and imperfect information.
Leveraging Leadership is a practical leadership podcast for Chiefs of Staff, executives, founders, and senior operators who want to lead more effectively and navigate complexity with confidence.
Hosted by Emily Sander, former Chief of Staff and executive advisor, each episode delivers real-world lessons, practical frameworks, and candid conversations with leaders across business and beyond.
Topics include executive communication, leadership presence, decision-making, delegation, organizational influence, operating rhythms, team effectiveness, and the often-unspoken challenges leaders face behind the scenes.
If you're looking for thoughtful conversations, practical takeaways, and leadership advice you can actually use on Monday morning, you're in the right place.
Leveraging Leadership
Practical Strategies for Post-Crisis Recovery and Team Performance
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
Savio P. Clemente, a two-time cancer survivor, shares how his experiences shaped his adaptive resilience leadership framework and gives practical advice for avoiding burnout and decision fatigue. The discussion covers high-pressure healthcare leadership, the importance of paying attention to your body, and why intentional silence and rest matter for Chief of Staff roles. Clemente also explains his "Aloha reboot" reset method and talks about his interviews with CEOs and CMOs on post-crisis leadership.
Links Mentioned:
Savio P. Clemente’s Website
[TEDx talk and book by Savio P. Clemente] (available via his website)
Savio P. Clemente on social media:
Instagram
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Twitter
LinkedIn
Get in touch with Emily:
Want to chat with Emily? Book a quick clarity call here.
Who Am I?
If we haven’t met before - Hi👋 I’m Emily, Chief of Staff turned Executive Leadership Coach. After a thrilling ride up the corporate ladder, I’m focusing on what I love - working with people to realize their professional and personal goals. Through my videos here on this channel, books, podcast guest spots, and newsletter, I share new ideas and practical and tactical tools to help you be more productive and build the career and life you want.
Time Stamps:
01:09 Reconnecting and Lessons on Failure
04:06 Cancer Survival and Body Awareness
07:00 Decision Fatigue Under Pressure
16:41 Post Crisis Recalibration and Aloha Reboot
18:28 Reframe and Aloha Method
23:21 Metacognition and Identity Traps
24:29 Intentional Silence Practice
33:36 Post Crisis Leadership Wrap
Welcome back to Leveraging Leadership, where we unpack the art of business leadership. I'm your host, Emily Sander, chief of staff to an executive leadership coach. This show is all about finding your points of greatest influence and leveraging them to better serve those around you.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204My guest today is Savio P. Clemente, and he is a keynote and TEDx speaker, journalist, and wellness coach. He works with leadership teams after disruption, when the crisis is over, but the performance have not fully recovered.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204uncertainty
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204his own experience rebuilding after surviving cancer twice,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204decisions in a
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Framework. His work helps leaders cut through the cognitive overload, make clearer decisions, and avoid the quiet performance drop that often follows high-pressure moments. Savio, welcome to the show.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204leadership. Emily, thank you so much. Thank you for that great intro. I'm excited to see what we unearthed today for your audience.
Reconnecting and Lessons on Failure
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204A few years ago,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yes, well, we got connected years ago, and, uh, for the audience, Savio was actually-- We got connected, he was interviewing me for an article on Authority Magazine around failure, I believe.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204friend. We
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204walking me through questions and going back and forth and did a great job then, and we got reconnected. And when I saw your name, I was like, "Wait, wait, that's a rare enough na-
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204answer. And
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204wait, I think I know this person." So it was so good to be connected to you again.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204that in his book, "Reconnected by Somewhere," and he talks about how that experience led him to write thousands of articles. Yeah, I-- You as well. I am curious though, since you did that article, what have you learned from that experience of writing about failure?
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah. Uh, I think that I had the failure loop framework for my book, I believe I was talking about to you.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204again and again
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204And I have, I have to say, I've seen that over and over and over again with clients and with podcast guests and with just connections where we think something is a quote-unquote "failure,"
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204to
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204when we take the learning and we take the lesson, even though that might be painful, and apply that going forward, oh my gosh, we've just grown. We've just progressed. We've just gotten better. And so you can flip "failure" into learning and progress and growth. So,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204just
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204I've just seen that over and over again. I've experienced it myself over and over,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204it myself
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204ugh, that does not feel great in the moment, but hey, like, if we make this into something else, then it can be meaningful. So
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Perfect.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204But you were doing, I mean, you must have done hundreds, thousands of articles in your time there.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204thousands of articles,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204uh, I also interviewed 200 cancer survivors. Uh, this is before my relapse, and I turned 35 of their stories into a book, including my own. So it was nice to hear, but it was interesting because when you talk about failure, right, people talk about winning and losing your battle with cancer and all that, and cancer is a such a serious, daunting thing. But I've often found that the golden thread through all those conversations, including my ones with leaders and change-makers and even celebrities, is this idea of forgiveness. It's not even forgiveness for someone else, it's forgiveness for the missteps that they took with their own lives.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Hmm.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204that shows up in work, that shows up in personal, uh, relationships it's, uh, interesting hearing those kinds of stories. Um, right now I'm running a series with CEOs and CMOs and hearing them in the trenches talking about basically the same thing, about the missteps that happen and how they feel at fault with those. So it's interesting.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah. So I definitely wanna hear about your conversations with CEOs, CMOs. We've got chiefs of staff all over this podcast, but
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204for your life. So
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204I don't-- I can't think of a higher pressure situation than
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204love
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204fighting for your life, which it sounds like you've done successfully twice. So, you know, congratulations, and I'm so happy that you're here with us and able to speak with me today. But talk a little bit, whatever you wanna share about that experience of a, quote-unquote, "high pressure situation" and what you learned from that.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204um, that experience and how you went into fighting for your own situation.
Cancer Survival and Body Awareness
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Yeah. So my initial foray into cancer was in 2014. I came back from a trip. I noticed den- drenching night sweats, went to go get a sonogram, admitted to the hospital. L- That night, I heard nurses talking about transferring me to the seventh floor, which is they call the cancer floor. I was only told the day later that it was stage three non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. Um, I was in the hospital for 15 days. I, um, went through six rounds of R-CHOP chemotherapy, and then in four and a half months, I received my remission status, was in remission for a decade, and my relapse happened in June of 2024. So to sum it all up, what it really taught me was that I really don't have control over some of the things that life and situations present to us. To a large degree, one could say I did everything, quote-unquote, "right." I was also extremely vigilant, um, about cancer. I got my blood work done every year, it was only because I paid attention to my body that this relapse was successful, to be honest with you, because I saw my oncologist in 2024, probably about two weeks before I saw my ENT, which was the one who told me about my relapse. he said, "Everything's good. I'll see you in a year." I said to him, "Dr. Steinberg, I've been noticing some ear fullness and some, uh, nasal congestion." He's like, "Okay, just..." You know, I'm like, "I'm gonna go see my ENT." He's like, "Okay, go." And he's like, "You know, just give us the records. We'll put it in your records. I'll see you next year." I'm like, "Okay." Go see my ENT. He's like, "You're a lymphoma survivor, right?" And I'm like, "Yeah." He goes, "You're a-- You have a lot of inflammation in your nasal cavity." He goes, "Do you know B cells can live in your nasal cavity?" And I'm like, "What?" So, uh, he said, "I've been burned before as a doctor. Let's do an MRI." Um, that looked weird to him. He said, "Let's do a biopsy." And literally, 3:00 p.m. on a Friday, the day before my 25th college reunion, where I emailed people for weeks on end have the courage or the stamina or the desire to pretend everything was good when it wasn't. Um, and so I just really want people just to understand if your body's telling you something, you have to pay attention, and you are your best asset. you working yourself to the bone or thinking that you're progressing or, or reaching the next level or stage of, uh, pro- professional growth means nothing if you yourself are not adequately nourished and being taken care of.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Thank you
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204you for that. And again, um, I think so many people unfortunately have a direct or indirect family member or friend's experience with cancer. And
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204member experience with
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204I think that's just,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204you
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204can't say that reminder enough to pay attention to your body,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204go
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204go speak with your doctor, get second opinions, and, uh, make sure we stay on top of these things and very vigilant 'cause
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204uh, make sure we stay
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204it's better safe than sorry, and it's a good outcome for ourselves and the people around us
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204that have come before ourselves and the people around us
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204who need us and sometimes count on us. So thank you
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204for
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204for sharing that and reminding
Decision Fatigue Under Pressure
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204folks of that. Uh, as a, as a s- as a segue, which I seem, which I seem just odd to do, but as a segue from that, in the corporate world, um, how do you avoid decision fatigue when the pressure remains high?
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204a different game plan for me. Yeah. How do you relieve pressure when we- Yeah. So my niche is healthcare leadership. I speak with, imagine, doctors and people in the healthcare industry who not only have the responsibility of taking care of themselves and obviously their team and their organization, but another human being. So we're talking about high stakes situations. I'm a big
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yep.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204of the show "The Pit" on HBO Max, and you get to actually see the humanity in these doctors and what they're avoiding and not avoiding. So how do you handle the pressure? You first name it. I'm a huge believer in that. Naming it doesn't mean that you identify with it. Naming it just means that this is actually happening, and I'm not oblivious, or I'm not trying to pretend that it's not happening. So that's number one. Number two is really acknowledging where the pressure is actually building and where the pressure is actually depleting within the corporate structure or within your own team. And then I would say the third thing actually is really to acknowledge what's actually happening to you when you think of the pressure. I do a lot of-- As a coach, executive coach as well, I do a lot of work with the body because the body keeps score, also the body tells us things. And so where in your physical being is this pressure actually building or mounting? Because when you can identify where it's affecting the physical body, it's where you can actually allow that release to happen as well.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah, I love the first one, which is naming it. I always say, 'cause you get it out in front of you, it's not in you or kind of like this amorphous thing, nebulous thing in your head. It's like, no, I've named it and I've kind of put it at arm's length, and so I know what I'm dealing with.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Absolutely. I mean, there's a concept called f- uh, psychological distancing. It's actually what's actually helped me. So when I had my relapse, I had a stem cell transplant, and I was in the hospital for 26 days. Uh, I lo- I'm sorry, 29 days. I lost 26 pounds. And in that, I only had two things. I had silence and stillness to anchor myself, and in that silence and stillness, I had the ability to create that buffer. And I think a lot of times when it comes to pressure, we're just... it's, it just mounts and mounts and grows and grows. It becomes this big, hairy, ugly thing that we wanna shy away from, but we know we have to deal with it, and then it takes over our lives, rather than creating a distance and reframing what's actually happening within yourself.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah. And I also love the, the body awareness. I used to kind of poo-poo that and be like, "That's woo-woo-y, and that's whatever." And then I was like, "Hmm, whenever I get stressed, my shoulders crunch up and go like this." I'm like, "Oh." So anytime I'm like, oh, I find myself doing that, I'm like, "Oh, hey," like, "what are you, what are you stressed about?" Like, "Oh yeah, there's that thing. We're good. We're actually good. You don't need to be stressed about that thing."
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Th- there's also one le- uh, layer deeper. Besides figuring out where it hits your body, you then figure out what is it actually trying to say. What
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204What is the, uh, underlying tenor that's actually moving through that? What is the fissure that's happening? So it's, it's complex, um, on the surface. It does sound like woo-woo, right? You're like, "Well, where, where, where is that happening in your
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Breathe into it. Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Um, but you know, these quote-unquote wellness-driven things are really important. I mean, I'm... I am a board-certified health and wellness coach, so for me, I live in those two pillars. They're, they're like silos. Healthcare poo-poos some wellness, and I agree. There's some crazy things in wellness. And wellness poo-poos healthcare, saying that all they wanna do is a pharmaceut- And they really need to speak to closely to one another,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204that's where the disconnect happens with us trying to interpret as real people what's actually going on here. And so do you spend $1,600 on a MedBed experience or do you actually go and take like three medications? It's like I can see why people are actually disjointed when it comes to that decision-making, for
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah. Well, it's a holistic effort, at least in my experience, is you gotta bring all the different components of yourself together, and when you try to separate them or isolate them, it might, might do a disservice to your, yourself as a whole. But,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204absolu- ab-
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204but...
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204when it comes to that being a precursor to functioning properly or to performing properly. If you don't do those things, then how are you going to Um, recalibrate or allow yourself to make things
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204that much more better and/or flourish. My parents, funny enough, when I went through 16 months of treatment, I did, um, uh, the stem cell transplant, and I also d- I chose to do an, an immunotherapy as well, then I also did physical therapy. My parents, Asian Indian, they're like, "Okay, go back to work and go," you know, you know. And I'm like, "I don't feel like myself, guys. Like, I, I can always make money in the future. I can't get better. I can only get better now." And I think people mistake that. They think they have to work themselves to the bone,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204No. Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204that's when problems starts happening. It's, it's what I call the post-crisis leadership gap. It's like this, this gap that happens, and the gap sort of grows, and it, it drifts and then becomes a chasm, and it becomes bigger, and then you're like, "Wait, I lost a complete semblance of myself." And that's-- And I'm not someone who believes in this whole idea of, um, corporate is sucking my, my soul away. Why can't corporate... Why can't it be soul-searching? Why can't you try to find ways to create, light and abundance in the work that you do?
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204And I think there's this whole cultural attitude of hustle and grind and outwork and sleep when you're dead and go, go, go, and, you know, uh, and, you know, entrepreneur un- 30 under 30 and all these, like, Forbes magazine things. And what I found... And I, I used to be swept up in that. You met me in my 20s, oh, my goodness, I was all about that. I could recite that to you till the cows come home. And what I've, what I'm finding out now is the rest and the restoration, like the rejuvenation pors- portion of rest, is part of the training, so to speak, is part of the performance. So if you're, like, on the gas pedal the entire time, you're actually not performing at your best. You have to have those moments of recovery, so.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204that's what I learned as well because I was like, "Wait a minute. I don't always have to optimize." Like, we track
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204You got
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Oh.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204for this. I mean, I know someone who has three wearables. Three wearables. I mean, I mean, don't get me
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204have an Apple Watch and I have a WHOOP band, but, like, three? And the person wears, like, two or three of them at a time, and I'm like, "What are
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204do you check
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Uh,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204in?
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204not only that, but what are you doing with the metrics? What are you doing with the
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204I--
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204like, a nice-to-have? Is it a Instagram, um, you know, for the 'gram? Is it for TikTok? Like, what is it for? Because it's obviously not anything different in you. I see you. I'm talking to you. You're pretty much acting and being the same way. So what is it actually doing? Interestingly enough, there is a brand, and I'm in talks with them, um, that's actually measuring emotional intelligence. is
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Wow.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204They are Y Combinator-backed, um, and they're launching very soon, and I, I, I'm, I'm interested
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Interesting.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204I'm really excited about that actually. It's really fascinating to me. and stylish... And stylistically, the way they designed it, it's, uh, I'm not gonna lie, it's very fashionable. It's very fashion-forward.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah. Well, I will say I do have an Oura Ring, and I got that for the sleep, so I do-- I make sure my sleep is on point. And then I also just got this Pulse mindfulness ring, which doesn't track anything. It has a haptic, uh, kind of vibration to it, and it just reminds you to be present
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Yeah.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204of whatever you're doing in the day, just come back to groundedness. And so I feel like that one kind of evens out the, am I in my, you know, performance zone and I'm... How's my sleep score and all those, all those things. So yeah, that's interesting.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204we're talking with your, your audience, with the chiefs of staff. I think I mentioned to you that I attended the AI summit a few months ago, and there was someone on the platform, I'm not gonna mention his name, but he mentioned, like, "You can use AI now as a chief of staff." And you're like, "No, no, no. He's not understanding properly what a chief of staff actually does."
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204no,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204like a
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204it's not.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204it's a weighty, heavy responsibility. It's like,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204I think you mentioned it, and I love the analogy. You said it's like, you know the six-pack cans? It's like that, that,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204that, like
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Plastic thing.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204that, that meshy thing. That's a connective tissue to that. And I'm mentioning this because really at the end of the day, it's like I was, um, um... They actually showed at CES this year, and they measure, um, in, um, uh, t-traditional Chinese medicine, five of the major organs, and this watch is, using their algorithm, is tracking how your liver and your spleen. But I'm like, "So my spleen is depleted. What am I supposed to do about that? I'm so confused. I don't understand. I don't understand."
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah. Yeah. I've not thought about my spleen one time, uh, which is probably to my detriment, but okay. Um, I'm sure there's a wearable that I can get my spleen score or something like that. But for chiefs of staff who, you know, we kind of, we kind of mentioned that naming something, uh, figuring out where it shows up in your body and then, like, what, what it's telling you. Um, when, let's say, a chief of staff goes through that process and they're under so much, you know, they're making decisions, they're helping their principal make decisions. Sometimes their entire leadership team is making decisions. Um, and like you said, like some of these are really high stakes, make or break for this department. Do we lay people off? It's make or break for our trajectory and our cash flow. Um, how do we continue to make high quality decisions without just draining ourselves and, and, um, putting ourselves in a, in a poor position to lead?
Post Crisis Recalibration and Aloha Reboot
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204My positioning on this work is really about what do you do after the crisis? After it, it ends, people think, "Oh, I, I won the game," right? But at the end of the day, that's where you win or lose because it's how do you recalibrate, how you, how do you regenerate- And how do you figure way, a way forward? So beyond those things, I think it always starts with the self, and it-- this may run into a little bit of woo-wooness, but every time I've had an executive coaching session, it's always about the human. Because at the end of the day, I can never do their job better than themselves. And so I echo this sentiment in a TEDx talk that I did probably about, like, a year and a half before my relapse, and it was called Seven Minutes to Wellness: How to Love Your Inner Stranger. And people are like, "Wait a minute. Inner stranger?" And I'm like, "Yeah." They're like, "So what, do you mean?" And I'm like, "I left it nebulous on purpose for, for a reason." Um, they're like, "So, so what's your inner stranger?" I'm like, "My inner stranger was that young person who never felt grounded or rooted or kind of like fixed to one point." And they're like, "Oh, I get it. So my inner stranger is that professional female id-idyllic, um, uh, boss, big boss person that I wanna be, and I, I can't, I can't be that person, or that great mother or that great sibling that I wanna be." And so, um, she's like, "Okay." And so I created a mini framework within a framework, um, which is called the Aloha Reboot. It's just a seven-minute reset. It's called Seven Minutes to Wellness. Um, and so A stands for acknowledge. So acknowledge where you are, acknowledge what's actually happening, brain dump, type out d-- like whatever you need to do to actually figure out. For myself, Savi's in the hospital. He's tied to all these machines. Nurses are coming every four hours. Doctors are doing their rounds, and I need to be available and alert for them because they're not only healing me, but we're healing
Reframe and Aloha Method
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204each other. They-- it's, it's a, it's a dance that we're actually doing, and if I don't show up fully as myself, then how are you supposed to do it? So acknowledge also parts of that is really this idea of reframing your situation. So instead of seeing the chemo as poison and toxic, I saw it as an elixir, as, as mana from the universe, as something that's a life force that's been scientifically and medically given to me, and I have to submit and surrender to it. So L stands for listening, so listen to that inner wisdom or what's ever happening. In, um, as we all know, aloha in Hawaiian means hello, so it's a hello to your inner self. But in Hawaiian, there's a healing modality called Huna healing, and in Huna healing, they actually believe that not only does the body send you sensations, but the body has language. It has consciousness. It has, it has language. It, it, it, it doesn't verbally speak, but it gives you these types. So it's really tapping into that through the idea of silence and stillness. How can you do that? Journaling. I'm a big meditator. Um, breathing exercises, figuring out what that is. O stands for opening, so open yourself up to that information. Whatever your belief system is, you're just exploring yourself. stands for harnessing, so harness that information. Make the mental connections. See what works and doesn't work 'cause not everything's gonna work. And the last one is A for acting, and so it's act I always say it's the caveat. You have to have courage to act. Um, there's a large sort of body of work in this idea of change. How do people change? And most people think people don't wanna change, but the research actually points to that people do wanna change. They just don't know how to change. And so you-- are you thinking about change? Are you pre-contemplating? Are you in change? Are you thinking-- Are you in change and thinking of relapsing? And so at the end of the day, you have to have the courage in order to act on these change philosophies.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah, aloha. Yeah, I like that. Um,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204um,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204uh, w- how do you, how do you, see
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204how
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204preventing just total I'm burnt out to a crisp, I have nothing left to give, versus, hey, sometimes we have to go through hard decisions or times of change, or hey, hey, we have to go fast for six weeks.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204sometimes
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204I'm asking the team to go fast for six weeks, and then recovering from that. So it's kinda like maintenance, preventative, proactiveness, and then, like, after the fact, how do you kind of regroup after that?
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204or sometimes change or maybe we have to look past the success. Yeah. Past the success. Yeah. And then also looking at, is there like maintenance with it too? Or not maintenance, but like circling back every year. Yeah. So this is part of the larger framework that I use on stages when I do, uh, keynotes, which is the adaptive resilience framework, is really posits that the body does send signals, the environment does send you signals, and there's patterns to convert that into clarity. So how do you do that? You first figure out for yourself, well, what is in my control? How do I self-regulate myself? for me, Emily, could I control the factors that these doctors are looking for? My, um, red blood cells, my white blood cells, or my platelets. I can't control any of that. I can only control how I think about myself and my situation, um, what my mental acuity is or is not doing if I feel tired or, or lethargic, um, and to a large degree, how I feel about the situation at, at, at hand. Um, you could do that through many different ways, journaling, um, like I said, you know, breathing, um, uh, writing, uh, just figuring out what's sort of happening. But I think the other part and the large part about this is really figuring out for yourself is, are you on the same pa-page as your team? Are you actually trying to go, go, go, go when they themselves are only in s- in, in step number one or step number three versus your overall, um, goal? So I think the first assessment is really to figure out for yourself, where are we heading and are we heading in the same direction? 'Cause I tell people all the time, "What is leadership?" It doesn't always have to be in a corporate setting. Leadership just means someone wants to follow you, someone wants to emulate you, someone wants to mirror you, and they actually see you as a way forward for their own lives.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah. And I, I think that when we talk about
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204And I
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204load and high-stake situations,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204to decision-making and advice and information, um, that making the
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204decisions certainly, but sometimes it's just someone,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204attention.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204It's needing your full-blown attention. And as chief of staff,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204and it's changing
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204we're task switching a lot, so we're with the principal, we're with the strategic customer, we're with our board member, we're with the new hire. So it's, it's that, but people need your attention, and they need you to be attentive and engaged, and so that is where it's like I'm doing all these positive things, and you might like it even, but it's still, like, it's still a cognitive load
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204It, it, it's not only cognitive load, but you're also then putting your expectation on someone who may not want to deliver or feels resistant to delivering. Of course, it's their job. But just because it's someone's job doesn't mean that they wanna execute properly, right? How many times have you seen people drop the ball? It happens consistently and, and constantly. So I think the first thing is to just verbalize, um, and to actually acknowledge actually happening within this particular environment, this particular campaign, this particular scope, uh, and then figure out next steps from
Metacognition and Identity Traps
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204there. I, I think what also helps, and this, this, this I will say is a little woo-woo, but it's this idea of metacognition. It's who's doing the thinking. So if you're continuously thinking of yourself within your role, "I'm chief of staff," um, you know, like, uh, "I'm a CMO or a CO," then you fall back on identity, and that identity then carries within titles, and that those titles then say to yourself, "Well, why aren't they listening to me? I'm the boss." Or, you know, "Why isn't this happening?" Because I... And, and then the onus falls on you, and then once again, the cycle repeats itself, and it becomes not only cognitive load, but it comes a stress load as well.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah. And you've mentioned some tactical and practical practices throughout, so, uh, meditation or journaling, some different ones in there. If someone's like, "Okay, I'm, I'm listening to what Savio is saying, and I wanna do something in this direction, but there's a whole bunch of constellation of things I could do," what's one or two things someone could start with that it's like, "Hey, if you did nothing else, if you did this, that would get you a long way. If you put this practice in place and did it consistently, that would go-- that would serve you well"?
Intentional Silence Practice
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204gonna tell you something that's probably gonna be really simple to your listeners and viewers. I want you to create intentional silence for yourself. I think it's the hardest thing that people are facing, is this idea that they actually carved out time to just be silent. And when I mean silent, I don't mean you have to be in lotus position or do a yoga class. That's great if that's what you wanna do. But I mean literally nothing, no noise. If you live in New York City, unfortunately, there's gonna be some extraneous noise, but there's an episode of Sex and the City where Charlotte gets acupuncture session, and she finds a way to block out the noise. So I want you to carve out that noise, and this is not just because it's nice to do, but this actually, there is great power in it, and I, I learned it from a lived experience that in that silence and that stillness that you can carve for yourself, you, you give yourself permission. So it's not like, "Oh, I want to have s-" No. I want you to actually give yourself- with like five minutes of it, and you will see that what is the stuff that you're ruminating around? What is it that's actually bubbling to the surface? What are the things that actually is really noise rather than signal? What is it that you can actually let go of rather than add onto? 'Cause you always wanna add more s- things. I think in a disruptive world, I think it's very important. I tell people all the time, especially, um, um, in the, uh, talks that I give, is that I don't think right now where us and humanity is because of social disruption, political disruption, and also technological disruption with AI, I don't think it's about content anymore. It's about connection. And that might sound a little strange to a lot of people, but I think COVID tested us on that connection, and I think we need to learn better from that experience as well.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204I love the silence piece. Uh, my working theory is people nowadays are scared of silence. It's because... And people, like, have like the-- I, I, and I'm guilty of this too. I have AirPods, and I'm always listening to podcasts and audiobooks and music in the background. But I've just recently started this, where one day a week I don't do that,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Yep.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204and I'm just, throughout my day, I'm just present and doing the thing. And it's, I, I find myself literally, like, reaching for my AirPod. It's like, "No, it's not there," and you
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Yeah.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204have to just, you get to just go through your day.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204When you give yourself that exercise, and of course, for everyone, it's, it's, it's different, literally within three days, literally, you will find that your mind and your being is going to actually allow you to see something that you didn't see. It's almost guaranteed because you allowed that space to actually happen. You, you allowed that space to grow. And not only that, but you allowed yourself the ability to do that. So many times people say, "Well, I can't do it." Yes, you can. You can do it. Maybe not in a, in a, uh, ra, ra, ra work situation all the time, but you do have a few minutes out of the day, whether that's during the job, even if it's a bathroom break or after work.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204And I would say a lot of the clients I speak with t-take walks, which are, which is good, take walks in nature, which is good, but they're often listening to things in their AirPod. So, like, take one walk out of the day or out of the week where you don't listen to anything, and you just are there. And even if your mind is getting distracted the whole time, the creative work is happening. And sometimes, um, when the seasons are changing, you take that same walk and it's a different walk each time, and you notice the differences, which is something you can put into practice.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204friend who's an entertainment jour- journalist, and I told her because about a year ago, there was this big trend, or at least in my world, there was this big trend called dark retreats. And basically, what it was is that people are locking themselves up in a room with double doors, and so it's an experience, and they get
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204This sounds ominous at the beginning.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204is no light. There is
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Oh.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204there's no light for eating. Literally, you're in the dark. I told my friend who's a journalist. He goes, "And how much is something like that?" I'm like, "I think it's like seven, eight hundred." He's like, "Only,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204What?
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204people would do this kind of crock." He's like, "If they wanna come to my home, I could do it and I can give them-- They can, they can pay me eight hundred dollars." But, you know, and it sounds funny, but actually, it is actually transformative, and I know people use that word so much. But it really is, because what it allows and forces you to do, have no other distraction. You can't see beyond that. And it's been reported from people who've experienced it, and I think Tom Brady, the football player, he, he,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yep.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204one for a week. Uh, it's been reported after, I think, day six, something shifts. Now, for everybody, it's different, but something does shift. Uh,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204it's because you have, uh, to wrestle with who is living within this space, this vicinity. Who is living within the mind, who's living within the heart, who's living within those, um, organs. And so challenges you. Needless to say, I didn't do it, but I had twenty-nine days, which I call a spiritual exile in the hospital, and it was a quarantine room, so it was pretty dark in
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204That counts, Fabio. Yeah, that counts. Yeah, no problem. Um, but I, I think, you know, the theme we're hitting on here might be culture has said, "Go, go, go," and that's how you win, win, win. And really it's slow down so the quality is higher. I mean, that's just, uh, off the top of my head. But, um, it's take a walk, let your creative juices flow, f- like face the m- face yourself, where it's like, "I don't wanna talk to... Like, I don't wanna know my thoughts in my head." Like, that can be scary, but then you, like, know thyself, and then you become wiser, and then you can make better decisions.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Yeah.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204you mentioned that. I like journaling 'cause it slows me down to the speed of my writing, which is much slower than how fast I can think. And it's
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Yeah.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204the physical feeling of writing as well. So little things like that just to, just to up your game and, uh, increase the, the quality of your work and thoughts and decisions. I think that's the name of the game now.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204And, you know, there's a book called "The Artist's Way," you've probably heard of it, Julia Cameron. And she talks about doing something called morning pages, where you actually physically have to write, and it's because the finger- Is also attached to the heart and the brain, and so therefore, like you said, you slow, you have this intentional reason to do it. But I think for the most part, a lot of individuals don't wanna face the silence because they themselves wanna be distracted. We live in a super distractive world,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Oh, yes
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204and so no noise, uh, it, to them is really I mean, it's a really fearful thing. But at the end of the day, I think what's also important is for us to find the rhythm again. I think, and know, the cue, "Rhythm Is Gonna Get You" by
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204I just thought of that, yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204yeah, that's, that's what I thought of too. Um, but at the end of the day, there is a rhythm that happens, and it's this rhythm that we falsely m- m- manipulate because of responsibilities. And
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204get me wrong, I'm not trying to say don't do what you need to do. We all
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204live, work, thrive, make money, and, you know, have fun. Um, but there is a rhythm that we are out of sync with, and that's why people have burnout and all those other things, because the rhythm gets so enlarged that they forget their own internal system and how that internal, as I call it, the internal operating system works. Yeah. And there's, there's a rhythm
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204a quote that I'm gonna mangle, I forget, but it's basically like if you want, um,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204like
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204like power, you can control other people, but if you want like true power and wisdom,
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Yeah.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204and control yourself. And it's like a lot of people don't have that last one. And if you w- if you wanna truly be a badass, it's like, "Yeah, I'm gonna go out and grind." If you wanna truly be a badass, like sit in silence for like 20 minutes today
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204give
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204and see if you can do it, and see if you can do it. You're probably gonna have to work your way up. But man, someone who can sit there and be with themselves and get creative thoughts and then go out in the world in a grounded way. I know who I am, I know what I'm about, and then I'm gonna go interact with
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204power.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204other humans. Like that's, I mean, that's powerful.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204somebody to be a badass for you, you have to give them the freedom and practice to decide. Yep, yep. You can't- Yep make a decision. Yep. You can't make a decision. Yeah. You have to allow them to make a decision. Yeah. And, you know, before modern, um, medicine and before modern technology, what did some of the ancient people do? They, some of them r- like renunciated. Like they just said, "No, I'm just gonna..." Now, be in a cave now, I'm not saying we need to, we need to do
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Go be a monk, yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204just not possible. I mean, I live in the suburbs of New York, an hour away from New York City. That's not even possible for me to do as well. But at the end of the day, if we don't do these things for ourselves, then we're gonna actually truly be disconnected to the
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204at hand. And, and, you know, w- we're not any good if we ourselves are not good. How many times have you heard people say,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yeah.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204but they're really not? And how many times have you heard people say, "I'm not good," but they don't do anything about it? So it's a take. By no means am I stating to you today that I have all these correct, but I'm on my way towards some level of balance.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Yes.
Post Crisis Leadership Wrap
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Beautiful. Um, Savio, what do you, what do you keynote on, and what are, is your coaching around?
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204Um, so I speak about, um, what happens after disruption, like I mentioned, what happens after the crisis. So I call it the post-crisis leadership gap. It's that gap that sort of happens and then drifts into. in the US currently, the healthcare system wastes about, it's been reported, nine hundred and thirty-five billion dollars in healthcare waste.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Hmm.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204just not just in equipment. That's in human bodies making ill decisions or decisions that are not fruitful for other people. So I cover the gamut, not only from my own professional leanings with interviewing leaders and experts, my coaching, and also, um, uh, the other work that I do. It's also lived experience, two-time cancer survivor, stem cell transplant, life-saving. Uh, so I've seen it from the inside out, where disruption actually, uh, is a, uh, a negative, not only in terms of our work and our livelihood, but it's a negative to the overall community 'cause we, we impact one another. Say what you will about the US being fractured at the moment, but, um, I think the only way for us to get to some semblance is to agree on something. I'll give you a classic example. I have a sibling. I have two. One of them is on the complete opposite side of, of the political scale as me. For a long time, there was a lot of tension. This is a known story with a lot of people. But after my relapse and after my stem cell transplant, I realized something, is that we're both not gonna move-- I'm someone who deeply believes no one should be disenfranchised. That's just, that's just a given for me. And she believes something else. And so I said, "Well, okay, what can we agree on?" We both love our parents. They're both thankfully still alive with us. We both love food, and we both love travel. So we talk about those things. Um, and so I echo that in terms of my talks as well because I think to a large degree, we always think that something needs to be an enemy rather than something that we need to be curious about and learn from, have-- and not be apathetic, but still have our boundaries, but allow ourselves to realize that to a large degree, truth, um, even if you find error in it, is still truth. We don't have to discard the whole truth. We just have to discard the error within that truth.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204I love that. Thank you. And, and you're writing articles again, is that correct?
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204I am writing articles, current, um, interview series with the CEOs and CMOs on the healthcare leadership operating system. Really fascinating to learn what they're seeing in the trenches, um, for that. Um, I also-- It's not usually my thing, but I was invited to do an omakase tasting. So I actually-- It was first, um, only a few female omakase chefs, uh, in New York City, and I saw her leadership at work, and I, I wrote a piece about it, um, as well. So yeah,
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204Wow. And where can folks find your articles or connect with you? What's the best spot for them to find you?
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204find me on my website, saviopclemente.com, S-A-V-I-O-P-C-L-E-M-E-N-T-E. There I have my keynote work. I have a few more spots left for 2026. Um, I also have my TEDx Talk, my book. Uh, every Wednesday I have, um, a Substack newsletter where I talk about the head, heart, and gut intelligence, which I call the three brains, and also my interview series with leadership and CEOs and CMOs. And if they wanna find me on social media, they can find me on every platform @thehumanresolve, at the end of the day, there's only two things we have. We have only the ability to resolve and to create resolution in our lives.
emily-sander_1_05-12-2026_114204And we'll have that, uh, information in the show notes. If you're going to Savio's website, be sure to put his middle initial, the P. We were talking about this before. Otherwise, you might go to a Brazilian wrestler of some kind or something. Um, so you don't want that, although he sounds cool too. But the Savio you want is Savio P. Clemente, so we'll have that all in the show notes. But Savio, it was great to be reconnected with you. Thank you so much for sharing your story and sharing some insights with our listeners. Very much appreciated. Thank you.
savio-p--clemente_1_05-12-2026_144204you so much, Emily. Really appreciate it.
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